Macrophage-mediated Innate Immunity for the Treatment of Cryptococcal Meningitis

摘要

At present, the treatment of diseases caused by Cryptococcus neoformans infection is mainly based on fungal vaccines which are aimed to stimulate the patient's own specific immunity. However, Cryptococcus is an opportunistic pathogen mainly infecting people of poor immunity, which determines the limitations of fungal vaccines in clinical use. Previous studies have found that B-cell deficient or CD4+/CD8+ T cell depleted mice still acquire resistance to Cryptococcus neoformans after the use of a fungal vaccine that expresses IFN-y. In this process, activated macrophages (Ml) play an important role in the protective immunity of Cryptococcus neoformans. Besides, many studies have also shown that innate immune cells possess the specificity for certain antigens. These indicate the potential of the development of IFN-y fungal vaccines against Cryptococcus.